Annual garden early September update

The tomatoes and peppers are really starting to shine now. Some days we leave the garden with buckets of tomatoes, and soon many of the peppers will be ready. We have already tried a few green peppers and one black one that did not turn completely red yet and they were great. The tomatillos as well are coming in and we harvested two so far this season.

Above are two Trinidad scorpion pepper plants... With SHU ratings over two million they are some of the hottest peppers on earth that we currently know of. Sitting at the top four spot of hottest pepper, they are quite tasty when made into a hot sauce, or when used in small amounts for cooking. Spicy peppers have great flavor, if you can handle the heat.

With around a dozen of these peppers on the way, I will need to find a way to store them long term. As consuming these quickly is really not a good idea.

Ants have been an issue with these pepper plants. We found aphids on the bottom leaves, the ants were farming them. But I treated them with soap and potassium salts. They are no longer there, and the few that are still in the area have asian lady beetles feeding on them.

I was worried about the pepper plants, they went in the ground the same time as everything else. But did almost nothing for a few months, but now they are making up for all of that time doing nothing.

We have lots of tomatoes, many pounds. And the end rot seems to have been dealt with. By applying dolomite lime we adding calcium and magnesium into their soil. A few of them have stopped putting out leaves, after yielding many pounds of tomatoes. I guess their season is starting to end. Though other cultivars are still growing leaves and stems strong. We have cherry, beefsteak and roma so they are all a little different plants.

Waiting for them to turn a little more red and fall off the vine, but many are close to being done.

These are jalapenos that are between their green and red growth stage.. They turn completely black.. so cool. My first year growing them, found that interesting.

This day was a smaller harvest, but still a few peppers and tomatoes ready to eat.

Our cantaloupes are about half done, we really hope they come through this time. Our first melons turned yellow and died, but we think we were over watering them. Hopefully these will do better.. so far so good.

These vines have also been attacked by aphids, we treated them the same way as the peppers with soap and potassium salts.

These blue little plants are one of three things.. cabbage, cauliflower, or broccoli. We are unsure so waiting to see this fall what they do.

We planted these in the spring time, and they did not grow at all. But once the temps cooled down we started to see growth.

The cages have worked great for the tomatoes. Really happy to have them.

In the same horse shoe bed we have more of those mystery plants.. cabbage, cauliflower, or broccoli?

We left shade cloth up on these to see if it made any difference.

The ginger looks well established.. Hoping it emerges again next spring.

A second box of cantalopes.. we love melons. These are your standard sized melons. The bed with the larger more formed melons are dwarfs.

The ants and aphids almost wiped out these plants. But as soon as we treated them with soap and potassium salts they came back really strong.

The horse gram / lab lab vine is monstrous!

Some hunter insects hanging out in the vines.

Building this arching trellis was a good idea, they are growing over it.

Flowers are forming, so many beans should be on the way. They must be prepared correctly otherwise they are toxic.

I spotted one bean pod already.

So much so its pushing out the poor pepper plants its growing in the bed with.. next spring I think I will leave vining plants in their own beds.

The tomatillos are coming in strong as well. Though they have escaped their cage we had for them. Will need to train them better next year.

Forming as paper husks these is grape sized fruit that grows over time until it gets so big it splits through the papper. They are toxic until they are fully ripe, so you must wait the full time before eating.. unlike tomatoes and peppers.

This was my first year growing tomatillos, cannot wait to make some salsa with them.

Mini bell peppers are coming along too.. we already tried one that was still a little green and they were great.

Next year we are going to start less tomato plants. We have 16 now and its proving to be too many.. lol

I was expecting to have a high mortality rate again, but this year has gone much more smooth. So I have too many now..lol

The sweet potatoes are growing great, no help needed from us besides sticking their vines back in the beds.

With multiple beds of sweet potatoes, we hope to have many spuds. We will dig them up once the risk of frost is upon us.

The easiest of the plants to grow.. the sweet potato plant.

So lots going on, new plants fruiting and old plants slowing down. Looking forward to the cantaloupes ripening, many more peppers and many some spuds in the next month or so when it starts getting colder.

Once frosts do come around, many beds will be empty. That will be the time to recondition them and have them ready for next years seedlings. Many of the beds soil has sank, so I need to add more hay and soil. With such large beds I need to do this a few times to handle all the settling.